For current news on this topic, see 2007-08 Phoenix Coyotes season

Phoenix Coyotes
Phoenix Coyotes
Conference	Western
Division	Pacific
Founded	1972
History	Winnipeg Jets 1972–1979 (WHA) 1979–1996 (NHL) Phoenix Coyotes 1996–present (NHL)
Home Arena	Jobing.com Arena
City	Glendale, Arizona
Colors'''	Brick Red, Sand, Black, and White
Media	FSN Arizona KAZT (Channel 27) KDUS (1060 AM)
Owner(s)	Wayne Gretzky Jerry Moyes
General Manager	Don Maloney
Head Coach	Wayne Gretzky
Captain	Shane Doan
Minor League Affiliates	San Antonio Rampage (AHL) Arizona Sundogs (CHL)
Stanley Cups	None
Conference Championships	None
Division Championships	None

The Phoenix Coyotes are a professional ice hockey team based in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL).

Franchise history

Winnipeg Years — WHA and NHL

The team began play as the Winnipeg Jets, one of the founding franchises in the World Hockey Association (WHA). The Jets were the most successful team in the short-lived WHA, winning three Avco World Trophies, the league's championship trophy, and making the finals five out of the WHA's seven seasons. It then became one of the four teams admitted to the NHL when the rival leagues merged in 1979.

However, the club was never able to translate that success into the NHL after the merger, in part because they played in the same division as the powerful Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames. While they made the playoffs 11 times in 16 seasons, they only won two playoff series. Due to the way the playoffs were structured for much of their Winnipeg run, the Jets were all but assured of having to defeat either the Oilers or the Flames to make it to the conference finals.

Despite strong fan support, the money simply was not around for the team, especially after player salaries began spiraling up in the early 1990s. The team was sold to Phoenix businessmen Steven Gluckstern and Richard Burke, and in 1996, the club moved to Arizona and became the Phoenix Coyotes.

The early Phoenix years (1996-2005)

In the summer that the move took place, the franchise saw the exit of Jets stars like Teemu Selanne and Alexei Zhamnov, while the team added established superstar Jeremy Roenick from the Chicago Blackhawks. Roenick teamed up with power wingers Keith Tkachuk and Rick Tocchet to form a dynamic 1-2-3 offensive punch that led the Coyotes through their first years in Arizona. Also impressive were young players like Shane Doan (the last remaining original Jet), Oleg Tverdovsky, and goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin, whom the fans nicknamed the "Bulin Wall."

Another key addition to the squad was fleet sniper Mike Gartner, who had come over from the Toronto Maple Leafs. Despite his speed, and scoring his 700th career goal on December 15, 1997, Gartner battled injuries as 1997 became 1998, and the Coyotes did not renew his contract. He retired at the end of the season.

After arriving in Phoenix, the team posted six consecutive .500 or better seasons, making the playoffs in every year but one. They were tremendously popular, in part due to the large number of Northern expatriates in the Phoenix area. The one year they missed the playoffs, the Coyotes became the first team in NHL history to post 90 points — long the standard of excellence in the NHL — and yet still miss the playoffs.

Phoenix-area developer Steve Ellman bought the team from Burke (who had bought out Gluckstern in 1998) in 2001, with Wayne Gretzky as a part-owner and head of hockey operations.

To this day, however, the Coyotes have never made it out of the first round of the playoffs. The franchise has not won a playoff series since 1987, when it was still in Winnipeg. The closest that they came to advancing past the first round was during the 1999 playoffs, when they lost a heartbreaking Game 7 to the St. Louis Blues. In 2002, the Coyotes posted 95 points, one point behind their best total as an NHL team, but made a rather meek first-round exit from the playoffs, being eliminated in five games by the San Jose Sharks.

However, several poor personnel decisions sent the Coyotes to the lower echelon of the NHL for two years. Attendance levels dropped considerably, worrying many league executives. In addition, an unfavorable lease with America West Arena, where the team played for its first eight years in Phoenix, had the team bleeding red ink.

In addition to the Coyotes' unfavorable lease with America West Arena, the building itself was inadequate as a venue for hockey. Several seats were obstructed because the arena's floor was not designed with a hockey rink in mind, unlike most modern arenas. Seating capacity had to be cut down to 16,000 — the second-smallest in the league at the time — after the first season. Even then, a stretch of the upper deck actually hung over the boards, obstructing the views of around 3,000 spectators. Some fans even claimed that they saw places where the original concrete had been sheared off to create retractable seats for hockey. After attempts failed either to renovate America West or build an arena in Scottsdale, the Coyotes built Glendale Arena (now known as Jobing.com Arena), and moved there in 2003. Simultaneously, the team changed its logo and uniforms, moving from the previous multi-colored kit to a more streamlined look.

The Gretzky Era (2005 - present)

On 6 August 2005, Brett Hull, son of former Jet Bobby Hull, was signed and assigned the elder Hull's retired # 9. Two days later, the Coyotes introduced Gretzky as its new head coach, replacing Rick Bowness, despite the fact that he had never coached at any level of hockey. The Coyotes Ring of Honor was unveiled on 8 October, inducting Gretzky and Bobby Hull. One week later, Brett Hull announced his retirement. On 21 January 2006, Jets great Thomas Steen was the third inductee to the Ring of Honor. On 13 April, Steve Ellman announced an agreement for Jerry Moyes to assume majority ownership control of the Coyotes, Glendale Arena and the National Lacrosse League's Arizona Sting. Also in the 2005-06 season, the Coyotes were planning to host the NHL all-star game. Due to the Olympics, that was canceled.

The team returned to Winnipeg on 17 September, 2006 to play a pre-season game against the Edmonton Oilers, but were shut-out 5-0 before a sellout crowd of 15,015.

On 11 April 2007, CEO Jeff Shumway announced that general manager Michael Barnett (Gretzky's agent for over 20 years), senior executive vice president of hockey operations Cliff Fletcher, and San Antonio Rampage's general manager and Coyotes' assistant general manager Laurence Gilman "have been relieved of their duties." The Coyotes finished the 2006-2007 season 31-46-5, its worst record since relocating to Phoenix. The Jets/Coyotes are the only former WHA team to have not appeared in the Stanley Cup Finals, and the oldest NHL franchise not to do so.^[1]

On May 29 2007, Jeff Shumway announced that Don Maloney had agreed to a multi-year contract to become General Manager of the Coyotes. As per club policy, terms of the contract were not disclosed. ^[2]

Season-by-season record

This is a partial list of the last five seasons completed by the Coyotes. For the full season-by-season history, see Phoenix Coyotes seasons

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime Losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes

Records as of April 8, 2007. ^[3]

Season	GP	W	L	T	OTL	Pts	GF	GA	PIM	Finish	Playoffs
2001-02	82	40	27	9	6	95	228	210	1154	2nd, Pacific	Lost in Conference Quarterfinals, 1-4 (Sharks)
2002-03	82	31	35	11	5	78	204	230	1433	4th, Pacific	Did not qualify
2003-04	82	22	36	18	6	68	188	245	1300	5th, Pacific	Did not qualify
2004-05	Season cancelled due to 2004-05 NHL Lockout
2005-061	82	38	39	—	5	81	246	271	1493	5th, Pacific	Did not qualify
2006-07	82	31	46	—	5	67	216	284	1038	5th, Pacific	Did not qualify

¹ As of the 2005-06 NHL season, all games will have a winner; the OTL column includes SOL (Shootout losses).

Notable players

Current roster

As of August 13, 2007. [1]

Goaltenders
#		align=left	Player	Catches	Acquired	Place of Birth
1		David Aebischer	L	2007	Fribourg, Switzerland
32		Mikael Tellqvist	L	2006	Sundbyberg, Sweden
35		Alex Auld	L	2007	Cold Lake, Alberta

Defensemen
#		align=left	Player	Shoots	Acquired	Place of Birth
2		Keith Ballard	L	2004	Baudette, Minnesota
4		Zbynek Michalek	R	2005	Jindrichuv Hradec, Czechoslovakia
6		Brendan Bell	L	2007	Ottawa, Ontario
44		Nick Boynton	R	2006	Nobleton, Ontario
53		Derek Morris – A	R	2004	Edmonton, Alberta
55		Ed Jovanovski – A	L	2006	Windsor, Ontario
77		Travis Roche	R	2006	Grande Cache, Alberta

Forwards
#		align=left	Player	Position	Shoots	Acquired	Place of Birth
8		Niko Kapanen	C	L	2007	Hameenlinna, Finland
11		Martin Hanzal	LW	L	2005	Pisek, Czechoslovakia
13		Daniel Carcillo	LW	L	2007	King City, Ontario
15		Mike Zigomanis	C	R	2006	North York, Ontario
17		Radim Vrbata	RW	R	2007	Mladá Boleslav, Czechoslovakia
12		Craig Weller	RW	R	2007	Calgary, Alberta
19		Shane Doan – C	RW	R	1995	Halkirk, Alberta
20		Fredrik Sjostrom	RW	L	2001	Färgelanda, Sweden
21		Bill Thomas	RW	R	2006	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
22		Mathias Tjarnqvist	LW	L	2007	Umeå, Sweden
28		Steven Reinprecht – A	C	L	2006	Edmonton, Alberta
34		Daniel Winnik	C	R	2004	Toronto, Ontario
88		Peter Mueller	C	R	2006	Bloomington, Minnesota

Team captains

Note: This list does not include captains from the Winnipeg Jets (NHL & WHA).

• Keith Tkachuk, 1996-2001
• Teppo Numminen, 2001-03
• Shane Doan, 2003- present

Hall of Famers

• Bobby Hull, LW, 1972-79 (WHA) & 1979-80 (NHL), inducted 1983
• Serge Savard, D, 1981-83, inducted 1986
• Dale Hawerchuk, C, 1981-90, inducted 2001
• Mike Gartner, RW, 1996-98, inducted 2001

Note: Hawerchuk, Hull and Savard played for Winnipeg.

Retired numbers

• 9 Bobby Hull, LW, 1972-80, number retired by Winnipeg February 19, 1989; Hull's #9 was unretired briefly upon his request at the beginning of the 2005-06 season for his son, Brett, before he retired five games into the season.
• 10 Dale Hawerchuk, C, 1981-90, number retired by Phoenix April 5, 2007
• 25 Thomas Steen, RW, 1981-95, number retired by Winnipeg May 6, 1995
• 99 Wayne Gretzky, number retired league-wide February 6, 2000

The Coyotes continue to honor the retired numbers of the Winnipeg Jets franchise; the banners for Hull and Steen at Jobing.com Arena are in the Jets' blue, white and red. Furthermore, Hawerchuk played for the Jets well before the move to Arizona.

First-round draft picks

Note: This list does not include selections of the Winnipeg Jets.

• 1996: Dan Focht (11th overall) & Daniel Briere (24th overall)
• 1997: None
• 1998: Patrick DesRochers (14th overall)
• 1999: Scott Kelman (15th overall) & Kirill Safronov (19th overall)
• 2000: Krystofer Kolanos (19th overall)
• 2001: Fredrik Sjostrom (11th overall)
• 2002: Jakub Koreis (19th overall) & Ben Eager (23rd overall)
• 2003: None
• 2004: Blake Wheeler (5th overall)
• 2005: Martin Hanzal (17th overall)
• 2006: Peter Mueller (8th overall) & Chris Summers (29th overall)
• 2007: Kyle Turris (3rd overall) & Nick Ross (30th overall)

Franchise scoring leaders

These are the top-ten point-scorers in franchise (Winnipeg & Phoenix) history. Figures are updated after each completed NHL regular season.

Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games Played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game; * = current Coyotes player

Player	Pos	GP	G	A	Pts	P/G
Dale Hawerchuk	C	713	379	550	929	1.30
Thomas Steen	RW	950	264	553	817	.86
Keith Tkachuk	LW	640	323	300	623	.97
Teppo Numminen	D	1098	108	426	534	.49
Paul MacLean	RW	527	248	270	518	.98
Shane Doan*	RW	803	199	273	472	.59
Doug Smail	LW	691	189	208	397	.58
Laurie Boschman	LW	526	152	227	379	.72
Jeremy Roenick	C	384	141	210	351	.91
Morris Lukowich	LW	431	168	177	345	.80

NHL awards and trophies

Jack Adams Award

• Bob Francis: 2001-02

Franchise records

• Most Goals in a season: Teemu Selanne, 76 (1992-93)
• Most Assists in a season: Phil Housley, 79 (1992-93)
• Most Points in a season: Teemu Selanne, 132 (1992-93)
• Most Penalty Minutes in a season: Tie Domi, 347 (1993-94)
• Most Points in a season, defenseman: Phil Housley, 97 (1992-93)
• Most Points in a season, rookie: Teemu Selanne, 132 (1992-93)
• Most Wins in a season: Brian Hayward; Bob Essensa; Sean Burke, 33 (1984-85; 1992-93; 2001-02)
• Fastest goal making his NHL debut: Yanick Lehoux,1:05 (November 8, 2005)

References

See also

• Winnipeg Jets
• World Hockey Association
• List of NHL players
• List of NHL seasons

External links

• Official website of the Phoenix Coyotes

Phoenix Coyotes  •  • [ e]
Franchise • Players • Coaches • GMs • Seasons • Records • Draft picks Jobing.com Arena • San Antonio Rampage • Phoenix Roadrunners • Arizona Sundogs • Winnipeg Jets

•  • [ e] National Hockey League (2007-08)
Current teams
Eastern Conference	Atlantic New Jersey Devils New York Islanders New York Rangers Philadelphia Flyers Pittsburgh Penguins Northeast Boston Bruins Buffalo Sabres Montreal Canadiens Ottawa Senators Toronto Maple Leafs Southeast Atlanta Thrashers Carolina Hurricanes Florida Panthers Tampa Bay Lightning Washington Capitals
Western Conference	Central Chicago Blackhawks Columbus Blue Jackets Detroit Red Wings Nashville Predators St. Louis Blues Northwest Calgary Flames Colorado Avalanche Edmonton Oilers Minnesota Wild Vancouver Canucks Pacific Anaheim Ducks Dallas Stars Los Angeles Kings Phoenix Coyotes San Jose Sharks
Trophies and awards	Stanley Cup (Playoffs, Finals, Champions) Prince of Wales Clarence S. Campbell Presidents' Trophy Adams Art Ross Calder Conn Smythe Crozier Hart Jennings King Clancy Lady Byng Masterton Messier Norris Patrick Pearson Plus/Minus Road Performer Rocket Richard Selke Vezina
Defunct and relocated teams	Atlanta Flames California/Oakland (Golden) Seals Cleveland Barons Colorado Rockies Hamilton Tigers Hartford Whalers Kansas City Scouts Minnesota North Stars Montreal Maroons Montreal Wanderers New York/Brooklyn Americans Ottawa Senators (original) Philadelphia Quakers Pittsburgh Pirates Quebec Bulldogs Quebec Nordiques St. Louis Eagles Winnipeg Jets
Other	Seasons (structure) NHA Original Six Draft Players (Association) All-Star Game All-Star Team Timeline 1967 Expansion Streaks Droughts Hall of Fame (members) Rivalries Arenas Rules Violence History

This box:  •  • [ edit] Sports teams based in and around Phoenix
Baseball	MLB: Arizona Diamondbacks AzL: Phoenix Athletics • Phoenix Brewers • Mesa Cubs • Peoria Mariners • Peoria Padres • Scottsdale Giants • Surprise Rangers • Surprise Royals • Tempe Angels AFL: Phoenix Desert Dogs • Peoria Javelinas • Scottsdale Scorpions • Mesa Solar Sox • Peoria Saguaros • Surprise Rafters
Basketball	NBA: Phoenix Suns WNBA: Phoenix Mercury IBL: Arizona Lightning • Phoenix Flame ABA: Phoenix Phantoms
Football	NFL: Arizona Cardinals AFL: Arizona Rattlers
Hockey	NHL: Phoenix Coyotes ECHL: Phoenix RoadRunners
Lacrosse	NLL: Arizona Sting
	Div - I Arizona State University Div - II Grand Canyon University